Alleged National Action member pleads guilty to MP murder plot

Alleged National Action member Jack Renshaw has pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism by plotting to murder Rosie Cooper MP.

On the first day of his trial at the Old Bailey, the 23-year-old from Skelmersdale in Lancashire admitted planning to murder the MP with a military-style Gladius knife last summer as well as threatening to kill police officer Victoria Henderson.

Renshaw is on trial alongside Christopher Lythgoe, 32, of Warrington, who denies giving Renshaw permission to kill the West Lancashire Labour MP under the National Action banner on 1 July 2017.

Both men also deny membership of the proscribed far right group along with Garron Helm, 24, of Seaforth, Matthew Hankinson, 24, of Newton-le-Willows, Andrew Clarke, 33, of Warrington, and Michal Trubini, 35, of Warrington.

National Action was founded in 2013 and became the first far right group to be a proscribed organisation in the UK since the Second World War, when it was banned under the Terrorism Act 200 on 16 December 2016. Despite proscription, an undercover investigation by ITV found the group were still meeting in private until at least March 2017.